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the noob

('98-'00) 
67K views 427 replies 30 participants last post by  atlasunit22 
#1 · (Edited)
Atlas's SF6 work in progress

just bought the car about a month ago. This is my second vehicle I have ever owned. Just becoming a father 3 years ago, i needed something with more room than a 94' Altima and something many times more versatile. My co-worker suggested to get a Forester. Boy, was he ever correct.
A little about me: I'm on my second year apprentice as an Autobody tech. Father of two young kids. My shop equiptment is at my disposal. My real name is not Atlas.

Table of contents for quick reference

Plastidipped wheels
Side mirrors painted to match
Painting the lower cladding to match
Bumpers, Bush bars painted, oh my!
Custom Grill part 1, mesh created from ML550 Grill
Custom Grill part 2, Finished for now
New stock exhaust, Superleggara refinishing
Reflector delete
Locking fuel door part 1, deleting the nub
Front bumper lip and E63 AMG, both fail
Proprietary OZ hub rings for Subaru hubs, Hella horns (typical of a subbie?)
2005 STI struts modification part 1, mockup
2005 STI struts modification part 2, disassembly
2005 STI struts modification part 3, literally plucking rust off with Metal Rescue on strut insert
Front Struts comparison, 99 SF vs 02 WRX vs 05 STI
2005 STI struts modification part 4, prepping strut body
2005 STI struts modification part 5, red struts, zero fittings installed, meet on a stick
07 STI Rear Sway bar, bushing problem and solution cheap!
2005 STI struts modification part 6, extra credit time. Solving the problem, my solution.
2005 STI struts modification part 7, lower strut mounts plug welded, redrilled, fitted. Proof of concept
The Wheel and Tire Fairy drops off my new set of wheels
Installing heating pads into 02-03 WRX seats
05 RS Wagon 60/40 split Rear seat part 1, preliminary install
05 LGT Rear brakes vs stock SF front brakes
Locking fuel door, functional part 2 + video (done)
05 RS Wagon 60/40 split Rear seat part 2, proper rear seat bracket fabricated for newer rear split seats into an SF
Recarpeting the old carpet in the hatch area and creative way to fix parking lot dings lol
Local Subaru meet, finally met R3Rotor in person
Re-bolstering new seats with old seat material
2005 STI struts modification part 8, completed
Subaru JDM F badge, courtesy of Tony Stark lol
Momo Steering wheel install and tips
Audi horns + hella horns = deafening
Custom Grill part 3, The F badge Install


List of parts installed or mods
Exterior
- Lowers Painted to match
- Red mudflaps
- Bullet hole decals
- 02 WRX hood scoop
- Custom Grill
- Locking fuel door
- JDM badge
- Pin strip delete

Interior
- 02 WRX front seats, rebolstered and heating pads installed
- 05 RS rear 60/40 folding seats
- Black carpeting for hatch
- 02 WRX Momo wheel

Electrical
- Hella super tone
- India rated Audi horns? lol
- Corner light reflector delete

Mechanical/Suspension
- K&N 3" cone intake
- Snorkel delete
- 18" Mille Miglia HT3 wheels plastidipped gold with Michelin tires, gone
- 18" OZ Superlegarra, refinished gold with Ohtsu tires
- 94 Legacy SS rear brakes (vented), gone
- 05 LGT Rear brakes
- Cross drilled rotors
- New stock exhaust with custom chrome tip
- 07 STI rear sway bars
- 02 WRX struts with Stock Springs, gone
- 05 STI struts modified to fit 5x100 steering knuckles (done, finally done. yessss)

Latest photo diary:







 
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#12 ·
They sell them in pairs (fronts or rears) or complete sets with pads. price was a little more than 200 for a complete set with pads.
The wheels were painted with plastidip. First black to get a good peel away base layer, then white for a very bright base layer (3 layers), then the gold metalizer (6 layers).
everyone had done gold metalizer on black, and it had always looked too dark for me. So i decided to see what the gold metalizer looked like on white. At around sunset, the wheels look like they glow gold. you have to see them in person to get the feel.

on a side note, plastidip will work as caliper paint:
 
#16 ·
Installing he good scoop was the easy part. Figuring out where and how to align it was the hard part. After weeks of procrastinating and researching, I found that there are 3 holes on the hood hat correspond to the three mounts for the bolts from the hood scoop.
Some info for anyone searching, my hoodscoop is from a 2002 wrx.
Anyways, after locating where those were. I had used a centre punch from under the hood to locate where to drill. Mounted it roughly, than traced in pencils shape and went 1/2" from the line inward for the hole cut to make he scoop functional.

Last Picture of the day:

She's getting her lowers painted to match this week. Aiming for Friday lowered as well.
 
#25 ·
to start, i had to repair the wheels. that means sanding down every scuff and blemish on there. Started with 120 grit. Anything that didn't come out easily was filled with icing putty.
Icing putty sands down real nice with 180 grit. Don't use bondo.
Filler primer was used afterward to fill any scratches, than 1000 grit wet sanding for the filler primer. Don't go crazy with the filler primer, make sure you mask off the good areas and only prime what has been scratched. It takes forever to sand down wet. Could have gotten away with 600 grit, but thats all i had.
while it was wet, i gave it a quick wash with carwash soap. Rinse, let it sun dry.
2 coats of black, 4 white, 6 cans of metallic gold.


if I was to do this again, i would start with white than go to gold. Skip black all together.

on a side note, bumpers going back on tomorrow!
 
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